A plan for building better communities

Sunday

Feb 10, 2008 at 2:00 AM

EXETER — If the people of New Hampshire — with the sixth oldest population in the nation — don't start thinking toward smart growth, they could be headed down a dangerous road, say the Seacoast authors of a newly released book.

Jennifer Feals

EXETER — If the people of New Hampshire — with the sixth oldest population in the nation — don't start thinking toward smart growth, they could be headed down a dangerous road, say the Seacoast authors of a newly released book.

"Communities & Consequences: The Unbalancing of New Hampshire's Human Ecology & What We Can Do About It," by demographer Peter Francese of Exeter and co-author Lorraine Merrill of Stratham, the newly appointed New Hampshire commissioner of agriculture, markets and food, looks at factors affecting development, growth and tax rates in the state.

The book intertwines interviews with young professionals, town officials, business owners and active citizens with demographic facts and statistics, speaking to the consequences of a state with a rapidly aging population.

The planning and transportation theory, known as smart growth, avoids urban sprawl by encouraging compact, transit-oriented, walkable and bicycle-friendly land use, including mixed-use development with a range of housing choices.

Francese and Merrill worked on the book for about a year, but say it was hatched long before.

The two met when Merrill interviewed Francese for an article on the trend of second homes on Cape Cod. The one article became a series, taking a broader look at all of New England, she said, and the two hit it off with similar points of view and concerns.

Francese said the co-authors quickly realized how much they both care about New Hampshire and its future.

"Our concern about the future and New Hampshire's rapidly aging population really caused me to think about writing the book and realizing I could not possibly do it myself," he said.

A documentary, "Communities & Consequences," by local film producer Jay Childs, is just a few weeks away from completion. It will air on New Hampshire Public Television and will be shown locally. The film includes interviews with many of the same sources for the book.

Through the book, Francese and Merrill aim to give town boards and committees and regular citizens awareness about the steps toward smart growth and how they may be acting in the wrong way now.

"The thing we've discovered together, really, is that over the past 10 or 15 years, children have gone from being perceived as a precious resource, absolutely essential and critical for our state's future, to becoming perceived as an intolerable financial burden," Francese said.

Residents blame rapidly rising property taxes almost entirely on the number of children, he said, and then act on this misconception through the zoning and development they bring into town.

"Excluding children from your community through large-lot zoning or age-restricted housing or some other means is not in the best interest of either your community or the state as a whole.

"There are serious consequences for excluding families with children from our communities. We talk about those consequences," Francese said.

The authors also try to raise awareness about the value and importance of achieving a greater diversity of residents, both in terms of age and income levels in communities, Merrill said.

The most important consequence, Francese said, is a declining work force. A chart in "Communities & Consequences" shows that work-force growth is projected to shrink to nearly zero within the next 10 or 15 years.

"The irony is that a lot of these workers who are missing and needed are the ones who are needed to meet the needs of our aging population, whether it be health care or retail, all kinds of assistance, that older and more affluent people are looking for and are going to increasingly need and workers are not going to be there," Merrill said. "They're already short."

The following organizations provided financial and editorial support for the book: Donahue, Tucker & Ciandella, PLLC; New Hampshire Association of Realtors; New Hampshire Business & Industry Association; New Hampshire Charitable Foundation; New Hampshire College & University Council; New Hamsphire Hospital Association; New Hampshire Housing Finance Authority; Northeast Delta Dental; Public Service of New Hampshire; RiverWoods at Exeter; and the University System of New Hampshire.

Never miss a story

Choose the plan that's right for you.
Digital access or digital and print delivery.

Advertise

Original content available for non-commercial use under a Creative Commons license, except where noted.
seacoastonline.com ~ 111 New Hampshire Ave., Portsmouth, NH 03801 ~ Privacy Policy ~ Terms Of Service